Plovdiv Province (Bulgarian: Област Пловдив: Oblast Plovdiv, former name Plovdiv okrug) is a province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, obshtini, sing. общинa, obshtina) on a territory of 5,972.9 km²[1] with a population, as of February 2011, of 683,027 inhabitants.[2][3][4] The province is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city of Plovdiv.

Plovdiv Province (Област, oblast) contains 18 municipalities[5] (singular: oбщина, obshtina, plural: Общини, obshtini). The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village (towns are shown in bold), and the population of each as of December 2009.

Plovdiv Province had a population of 715,904 (715,816 also given) according to a 2001 census, of which 7001484000000000000♠48.4% were male and 7001516000000000000♠51.6% were female.[10] As of the end of 2009, the population, announced by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, numbered 701,684[2] of which 7001241000000000000♠24.1% are over 60 years of age.[11]

The following table represents the change of the population in the province after World War II:

The economy of the province is of great importance. The agricultural production is intensive and efficient with high levels of irrigation. The major crops are fruit (apples, plums, pears, cherries), grapes, melons and watermelons, vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes), wheat, rice, barley and others. Industry is very well developed: ferrous metallurgy near Plovdiv; thriving electronics industry in Plovdiv, Saedinenie, Voivodinovo, Radinovo and other villages in the area; agricultural machinery (tractors) in Karlovo; weapon and military plants in Sopot, Karlovo, Plovdiv; chemical industry in Plovdiv, Asenovgrad; food industry is developed almost everywhere, most notably in Plovdiv and Asenovgrad (wines). Tourism is a growing industry with the rich cultural heritage of the province and the numerous mineral springs which are of international importance.